Chris Joannou, VP of Ecosystem Growth at Draper University, shares his insights on how startup ecosystems play a crucial role in nurturing innovation and fostering collaboration. In an interview for Dinis Guarda YouTube Podcast, Chirs highlights the entrepreneurial mindset, and the impact of Draper ecosystem worldwide. The podcast is powered by Businessabc.net, Citiesabc.com, and Wisdomia.ai.
Chris Joannou has extensive experience in the startup and venture capital sectors, having held key leadership roles at Draper Startup House, StartupBlink, and Startup Melbourne. He is currently the Vice President of Ecosystem Growth at Draper University, a venture capital ecosystem under the flagship of the pioneer venture capitalist Tim Draper.
Draper University has secured over $240 million in venture funding by its alumni, who have founded more than 700 companies and created over 7,000 jobs globally.
Emphasising the critical role that startup ecosystems play in shaping the success of entrepreneurs, Chris tells Dinis:
“Startup ecosystems help people. There is something that if you do long enough the beauty is, it becomes really apparent in unexpected ways. The people just connect to each other.and when you can connect the dots and help people then they don’t forget it. It’s not just about building the most advanced product for yourself—it’s about helping others grow too.”
Speaking about the Draper legacy, Chris tells Dinis that the Draper family has shaped the venture capital landscape of Silicon Valley for over six decades, establishing a multigenerational legacy of innovation and investment. Beginning in 1958 with General William Draper, who founded one of the first VC firms on the West Coast, the Drapers have been pivotal in backing revolutionary companies like Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, and SpaceX. Each generation has expanded the family’s influence: Bill Draper co-founded Sutter Hill Ventures and focused on global investments, while his son Tim Draper, through Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), made iconic early-stage bets on tech giants. Continuing this legacy, Tim’s daughter Jesse Draper now leads Halogen Ventures, championing female-founded startups.
About Tim Draper, he says:
“Tim Draper is very famous for some of the biggest bets in startup history. He was involved in the seed stage funding for Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Coinbase, and 36 unicorns, more than six rhinos, $10 billion plus companies. He is very forward in his thinking that the best entrepreneurs could be anywhere. And so he was the first US investor into Skype. He was the first as far as us VCs are concerned US investors into China. Then you’ve got the Bitcoin acquisition which probably is the greatest single investment I know of. I don’t know anyone that’s made an investment in that. In the middle of all this I suppose we fund seven or eight funding ecosystems. He’s definitely made his own mark and made his dad proud.
He started Draper University with the idea that entrepreneurship should be taught by entrepreneurs. He’s got some really quirky things that we do mixing the experiential with the theory which makes us truly unique on a global scale. He wanted to bring entrepreneurs from all around, potential entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley, help them, give them the education they need and potentially some funding. It has evolved into a global network of funds with Draper NEXUS ventures, Draper Dragon, Draper B1. About 24 of these funds around the world and the University can act as early stage seed flow or pre-seed funds.”
Draper University: A startup ecosystem hub
Draper University offers various programmes, including Hero Training, Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship, and the GO! Entrepreneurship Immersion Program. These initiatives are designed to take entrepreneurs out of their comfort zones, encouraging them to develop and execute their ideas effectively.
Chris highlights it to Dinis:
“Draper University is unique because it mixes theory with real-world experience. We focus on mindset—helping entrepreneurs think big and pushing them beyond their perceived limits.
I always challenge entrepreneurs, even the entrepreneurs that make our program, that how could you make this 10x bigger, how could you make this 100x bigger. And those questions can lead even the big thinkers in a different frame line. That is very important because the trajectory or the rate of exponential growth of innovation and the market and what’s happening, is not just us telling you to think big it’s just you have to be that big one because you’re going to the market.
If you want to get in the venture capital space, then you need to be thinking that a single bet they’re making on could cover all the other failures. I think regardless of whether it’s Draper University or your first startup weekend or hackathon, get out there and try entrepreneurship. You might be surprised, just challenge yourself. It’s said that the growth comes from being in that uncomfortable place. I think the best entrepreneurs after a while are always seeking the discomfort right. I heard the phrase ‘If it’s too quiet, you need to throw a grenade in the office’. It’s better to be in the chaos.
At Draper University, there’s definitely programs where you can test the market but for the most part you know we’re the VCs. So, we’re looking at a kind of pre-seed stage. You’ve got a product, you just start in, we’ll take a gamble, earlier than most, where we think you can deliver and you’re working on a big market.
We’re the only ones that I know as a global kind of VC fund that are simultaneously investing in cancer treatments and flying cars. We truly back moonshots.”
Draper University is credited with nurturing multiple unicorns and rhino companies over the past decade. Its alumni have been featured in global lists like Forbes 30 under 30 and have secured funding from renowned investors such as Marc Benioff and Marc Andreessen.
“We’ve had companies that have been acquired for $275 million on demo day and $100 million deals, like Coca-Cola, YouTube. In our last programme, we had 110 startups in the building from 30 countries the program; before that we had 120 or 130 startups in the building from 35 countries. That’s for our Flagship Hero training.
We also have a lot of government partnerships with Korea and Kazakhstan, with about 10/20 entrepreneurs in together. Then you’ve got this incredible melting pot in the middle of Silicon Valley.
We always have a few superstars in each of the programs that see the beauty of the proximity of Silicon Valley and the Draper legacy, where we can count on top founders from portfolio companies and stuff to lend a hand and teach and so Founders from Zappia or whatever, so you get and we’re the only ones with the residency.
That’s really super helpful for partners too because Draper University is a hotel that Tim Draper bought. So instead of governments or corporate partners having to Airbnb out all this stuff, we can fit about 180 startups or founders rather in the building at the same time. There are all the facilities, and you got all these startups together and the conversations then and we think we produce a much better startup if they live with us. It’s a beautiful experience for the founders for sure and then at the end you might walk away with the check. So, it’s a great place to at least start entrepreneurship for sure.”
Draper University also collaborates with global innovation ecosystems, partnering with governments and organisations in regions like LATAM, Europe, Africa, and Asia to provide Silicon Valley expertise and resources. These partnerships aim to boost innovation and entrepreneurial activity in emerging markets.
Draper University has also formed alliances with blockchain platforms like Tezos, Algorand, and VeChain, offering accelerator programmes to startups within these ecosystems.
Draper University has a strong network of mentors, including industry leaders such as Elon Musk and Andrew Chen.
The entrepreneurial mindset
“Culturally, fear of failure is definitely a common thing that you would see worldwide. You need to get over fear of failure. We’re not saying to give up. In fact, it’s just getting good at experimentation, being objective. We definitely want resilience, but if you screw it up just keep moving. I think people’s fear of failure prevents them from even starting and then if they start it prevents them from taking action”, says Chris. Explaining the entrepreneurial mindset he says:
“Entrepreneurships save the world with a tangible impact. I like the case study of Skype where we invested. So, the Skype Founders are from a relatively small country, Estonia, get acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion, and they go on. This is often the case with ecosystem impact. It happens that most entrepreneurs reinvest in their own home country regardless of whether they’re going to Silicon Valley. They’re still hiring entrepreneurs back home so there’s nothing lost with sending startups to Silicon Valley and taking money from the US. It always filters back anyway. They get acquired, and the founders go on to start the founding team for other 10 companies that become unicorns. Think about the impact of that alone. So, you’ve got Skype scaling to 10,000 employees, the founding team starts another 1 billion plus companies, they also start a bunch of VC funds that also create another bunch of unicorns. At one point, Estonia per capita is the number one producer of unicorns in the world.”
Chris concludes the interview by bringing some hope to the accelerated innovation in AI:
“I would say definitely just have a try, if you have not already. I mean I think it’s super exciting. You can see from each iteration how much it’s improving and how I think it will help make our lives easier once we have AIs that understand. We’re not that far away. I imagine all the biggest players already have quite a much better model than the ChatGPT4 that to advertise to us for example.”
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